HR tech the new key tenet in Malaysian businesses

IT now integrated into Malaysia strategy for long-term growth and profitability; IT investments worldwide hit $594 billion last year

SINGAPORE (12 May 2011) – Technology now plays a pivotal role in organisational success. And in particular, HR technology solutions are more than process automation, they encompass end-to-end strategic talent management.

“Organizations face a number of challenges when moving their HR applications into the Cloud. Fast-growing companies looking at solutions for talent management and recruitment must ensure that any SaaS solutions they choose can integrate seamlessly and inexpensively with their existing infrastructures, and scale as the company expands”, says Tim Darton, General Manager of Human Capital Management (HCM) for Oracle Corporation, Asia Pacific Division. He adds, “With the arrival of Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management, Oracle is redefining the Total Cloud Ownership experience, with a full suite of enterprise-grade, SaaS HCM applications that can be deployed easily and securely across any environment. Oracle Fusion HCM is also redefining the business of HR, with applications that deliver a next-generation user experience, built-in business intelligence, networking and collaboration capabilities, and embassy-grade security.”

Another key provider in today’s HR systems market, Ramco HCM is completely web-based and deployed on a SOA platform, built around the employee management life-cycle to empower, enrich and entitle.

Last year, it was estimated that organisations worldwide spent an estimated $594 billion on computer hardware and software alone. In this digital economy, IT is the foundation of doing business. More companies are acknowledging that IT is crucial to maintaining competitiveness, conceding that their dealings with customers and suppliers, whether they are efficient, scalable and timely, largely depended on IT support systems. As such, senior management need to redefine how business is done in this digitised age and take a proactive approach in heading IT initiatives.

So what makes a company “good” at IT? A survey conducted by McKinsey & Co and the MIT Center for Digital Business on some 330 US public companies revealed that companies that possessed the data and applied the information in making decisions (instead of relying more on intuition and expertise) had the highest productivity and profitability. As a matter of fact, the most data-driven companies had 4 per cent higher productivity and 6 per cent higher profits than the average ones.

More surprisingly, it was found that not all companies were ready, willing or able to become data-driven. Best technology practices are still not widely adopted, however, there is room for improvement in the overall management and utility of technology for enhanced organisational efficiencies. Actually, “there’s a basic risk aversion among businesses”, says Bobby Cameron, Forrester Research analyst.

This is also the case with Malaysian businesses. Sometimes there is inertia in adopting technologies for human resource management, hindering organisations that could have otherwise surged forward and harnessed growth opportunities in the New Economy. The government’s enactment of the Malaysian Innovation Agency Act 2010 and the Special Innovation Unit (Unik) hope to help introduce new technologies to majority of Malaysian businesses which are SMEs and assist them in innovating businesses. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also expressly advised SMEs to integrate technology into business strategy.

Most say that with the introduction of the cloud and SaaS, HR technology is a great equaliser, raising market competition; it also further distinguishes the leaders from the laggards in Malaysia’s growth economy that has already begun seeing seismic changes in market leadership and positioning on industry leader boards. This is in stark juxtaposition with the HR systems market in Singapore which has arrived at a certain level of maturity and stagnation that sees fairly cemented ties between companies and their technology providers. Malaysian business would do well to embrace strategic integration of IT. Then again, with all these tech talk, let us not forget the principal drivers of business – people.

As we surge ahead into the New Economy, Malaysian businesses now ask:

• Are systems, processes and tools in place to hire the right people in the right roles?

• Are we leveraging on HR technology for operational and cost efficiencies?

• Have we fully acknowledged the role of technology in organisational success?

• In making business decisions, are you relying on hard data or intuition and expertise?


Malaysia’s top SMEs, regional MNCs and even government agencies who are major employers will be using a unique opportunity to draw up HR strategies and secure new competitive advantage in Malaysia’s quickening growth market at the HR Talk Show’s A-list CEO-level panels come Wednesday, 25 May 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The HR Talk Show series is a high-impact interactive platform bridging the gap between government and business initiatives to drive human capital best practices and actionable insights into talent, technology and strategic HR. In a unique talk show format, CEOs, HR Directors, CIOs/CTOs and their CFOs from Malaysia’s most admired companies will be working with 400 participants to interactively walk through the most current human capital challenges in a fast-growing economy like Malaysia’s to ensure that the most important leaders in businesses and public organisations can:

• Drive improved talent productivity and leadership succession

• Cast off accident-prone legacy strategies for talent management

• Secure proper methodologies to evaluate and implement HR technology and services

• Resume their strategic roles with a greater clarity of thought and vision

all with the aim to support, harmonise and put into action the initiatives from both government and private sector to transform and grow Malaysia into a high-income economy and grow the local highly-skilled workforce to 33 percent by 2015 and 50 percent by 2020 as outlined in the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP).

The series is organised by the Center for Business Strategy and Tactics and promoted by Arc Media Global with a high-profile network of international and local partners and supporting organisations, including sponsors Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, SuccessFactors, Northgate Arinso, and Ramco Systems; exhibitors KZEN Solutions, Lumesse, Orenda, and Business Formula Adaptive Partnerships; and strategic partners Corporate Executive Board, World HRD Congress, and Young Business Owners – ASEAN; among many others. Please call the production team at +65 6844 2080, email hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com or visit the official website www.arcmediaglobal.com/hrtalkshow for details on programme, attendees, and other key features of the May 2011 talk show.

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the speakers at the HR Talk Show,
please call Eunice Wee at (+65) 6844 2080 or email Eunice at hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com


Keywords: Tim Darton, HCM, Oracle, PeopleSoft Enterprise, Ramco, SOA platform, digital economy, McKinsey & Co, MIT Center for Digital Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Forrester Research, Malaysian Innovation Agency Act 2010, Special Innovation Unit, Unik, Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Najib, cloud, SaaS, New Economy, HR technology

The Center for Business Strategy and Tactics (Center for Business) is an industry research centre (IRC) that works to bring top executives together in communities of learning and practice to act as a catalyst for generating high-value energy business insight and channel top expertise to where the world needs it most. Center for Business meetings are powered by Arc Media Global, a B2B/G2B integrated international marketing specialist headquartered in Singapore.

Robinson Road. PO Box 176. Singapore 900326
Contact: Eunice Wee
Arc Media Global
(+65) 6844 2080
hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com
www.arcmediaglobal.com/hrtalkshow

This release was published on openPR.